The Norwegian SDI set is rooted on the so-called ‘capital approach’ which places the concept of ‘welfare’, measured as ‘National Wealth’ in a wider sense, at the centre.

A set of national indicators has been developed covering the seven policy areas in the SD strategy. The set consists of 17 indicators for assessing whether development trends in different areas are progressing in a sustainable direction. Two indicators, standards of maintenance of protected buildings and income distribution, have been added since the initial set was elaborated in 2005 ('Indicators for Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development'). Also, changes have been made to some of the other indicators to make them more politically relevant. In the revision in 2011 some further adjustments to the current set were done. In addition, a couple of the indicators covering biodiversity were replaced by a Nature Index. 

The updated indicator set can be found in chapter 6 of the National Budget 2012 (in Norwegian).